Let me share my opinion, and give you all some advice.
From 1999-2002 these were my worst supplier days, I ran to several but almost hundreds of resellers claiming to be honest, and about 60% were scamms. Nothing simply worked. Evidently, I was able to crossed-out those bad apples from the good and made very good money which is now invested. I buy from the source now because eventualy I made the capital for it. There are small-mid organized companies who are simply looking to sell overstock, NGF, returns all sorts of products expired by manufacturer or out-of-date and no longer sellable.
Advise: Ask for name, get Tax ID (EIN #), ask for address, resellership account contracts, get a resellers certificate from your accounting firm. Ask for a reseller certificate from your supplier, verify with the secretary of state and commonwealth, or VAT in european and Uk countries. Get a valid drivers or goverment ID. If they ask you for what? It's simply for verification, google the company. Do a real search and on a business before you go into business. Remember, is your money and you decide who you do business with, any company that declines this information isn't legit and buyer beware. Always pay with a credit card (shuffle credit cards and watch out for to many charge backs), never pay via WU or MG. PayPal is not going to help you in this case, many people loose money using paypal for buying wholesale. Think Google Wallet/Moneybookers or a processor. Ask who there processor in case you may want to call them and verify (e.g Mercury Payments, techdata, iPayments). Always as for a proforma invoice not be confused with a commercial invoice use for exporting. Shipment date, shipment carrier forget drop-shipping is not real and many people get scammed. Upfront inventory = On hand product = real money. Always ask for tracking is very important and fulfillment should have within 48 hours of you asking for it no excuses. Contact the supplier by Skype (best method) or phone, get in-touched and no whete you always are with the products.
"Samples" - they do not exist and no big player will waste their time sending one product. Ask fo MQO (Minimum Quantity Order), theres no such thing of "100 iPads", Tech-Data has a hard time selling me 100 iPads and not to say I carry a reseller certificate with Apple, I have to go to softchoise. When importing from when ever china, usa, Uk... think FOB cost of goods + transportation + insurance + unloading, importing/exporting requires documents and customs, VAT & Fees! Do not let a supplier prompt you the "I will ship gift via usps" - be very professional, and ask yourself who would do that!
Hope this helps you, I have some good suppliers I deal with occasionally just pm me if you have more questions.
Cheers!
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